Today was the second and final day of the 2009 Big Ten Media Days. I was going to try to post last night with yesterday's information, but that didn't happen, so I'll try to get to everything in this one post. Kirk Ferentz actually provided a lot of information in some of the side interviews. His main press conference (which you can see here) was not spectacular, however. Anyway, to start things off check out the 3 videos posted on On Iowa of Kirk Ferentz at media days.
Suspensions:
Kyle Calloway - 1 game
James Ferentz - 1 game
Shaun Prater - 2 games
I don't think that will hurt the team too much. The offensive line should be fine without Calloway or Ferentz for the first game against UNI. It would be nice to have Prater back for Iowa State just to have some more depth in the defensive backfield, but it should still be okay. Ferentz said there's still a battle between Prater and Berstine that's "wide open," so we'll see what happens week 3. I'm guessing Bernstine will be the the #1 but we'll still see Prater in some of the nickle or dime packages.
Center:
It sounds like there is going to be quite the position battle at center. However, one name not in the mix is Julian Vandervelde. Vandervelde will not move to center, even though they experimented with that in the spring. I wonder if that has something to do with his injury. Also, apparently Josh Koeppel is one to watch for this fall. Rafeal Eubanks is currently the #1 guy, but Coach Ferentz said that Koeppel has looked good. That'll probably make a lot of the Eubanks haters happy. Eubanks definitely had his bad moments as Iowa struggled in 2007, but he does bring a lot of experience. I'm also interested to see how James Ferentz fits into the battle. I think the 1 game suspension definitely hurts his chances of earning the starting job. He probably would have at least seen some action in clean up time against UNI. But now, he'll likely have to earn his time during practice. I think there is still an outside chance that he'll end up the starter mid-season or so depending on how the offensive line is gelling.
Jewel Hampton:
We know the whole Jewel Hampton injury thing has been a "circus" (Ferentz's word). And, I think for now the story will finally be laid to rest. Kirk Ferentz said on Monday that Hampton will be full speed by next week. That sounds like perfect timing to me as practice for the 2009 season begins on August 5 (that's also Iowa's Media Day). Hampton's health was also confirmed by the man himself on FaceBook, saying his latest MRI was clean and he's "GOOD-TO-GO!!"
Angerer, Moeaki, Edds Videos:
Preseason Picks:
Preseason Favorites: 1. Ohio State, 2. Penn State, 3. Michigan State (the media likes those state school apparently) OSU's Terrel Pryor is Preseason Offensive Player of the Year and MSU's Greg Jones is the Defensive Player of the Year. I still don't get why people would put MSU at #3 over Iowa (at least Rittenberg got it right). I know it's just the preseason and I should take an example from Kirk Ferentz and not care, but it still think these people got it wrong. Anyway, on to more wrongness...Pryor as the POPOTY? I guess the media likes his potential, but there are much more proven players to choose from in the Big Ten…Royster, Benn, Clark, throw in Stanzi for a homer pick, etc…